# What would happen if I shipped polar bears to Antarctica? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691 "2015-03-22T16:21:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/61 "2015-03-25T12:14:24Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > :dubious: What kind of fur do you think Inuits _usually_ most use? Yeah they use seal, but they also heavily use Caribou fur, not sure if they could survive only with the smaller seal furs. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/62 "2015-03-25T12:27:55Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > They migrate to Faermane? 80% humans, 10% dwarfs and elfs, 10% “other.” No penguins. Someday the millennia-long saga of the quest to rid Faermane of penguins will be told. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/63 "2015-03-25T12:45:30Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Yeah they use seal, but they also heavily use Caribou fur I think the ratio of caribou to seal varied depending on where they lived, with some Inuit being more [Seal Inuit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_hunting#Traditional_seal_hunting)(that being their[actual name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsilik_Inuit)) and others being more [Caribou Inuit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribou_Inuit). I also don’t doubt that different skins were preferred for certain items based on characteristics like water resistance, warmth, toughness etc. (although [they’d also use either for the same item…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#/media/File:Inuit-Kleidung_1.jpg)). And of course, it’s not just sealskin - seal oil was a primary lamp fuel. > [@](#): > > , not sure if they could survive only with the smaller seal furs. I think you might have an underestimation about the [size](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_fur_seal) of [Antarctic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_seal) seals relative to Caribou. [A _serious_ underestimation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_elephant_seal). Elephant Seal bulls are the largest extant carnivore. Bigger than polar bears. Bigger than walruses. _Much_ bigger than caribou. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/64 "2015-03-25T14:20:45Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Elephant Seal bulls are the largest extant carnivore. Bigger than polar bears. Bigger than walruses. _Much_ bigger than caribou. ? Sperm whales. Edited: I guess you were talking about the Order. nm ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/65 "2015-03-25T14:35:34Z")
It would be unbearable for the penguins. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/66 "2015-03-25T17:12:28Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > Note that there was a quasi-penguin that lived in the Arctic until the mid-19th century: the [great auk.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk) Polar bears were definitely observed to hunt great auks while they were still around, so I don’t think they’d have any trouble with penguins. > . Strangely, it was the opposite. The penguin was given it’s name as it looked like a Great Auk, which was the original “penguin”. So the southern flightless bird is the quasi-penguin! ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/67 "2015-03-26T03:28:21Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Well, maybe if someone at McMurdo or some other base threw something toxic out onto the landscape… but it’s my understanding the bases are usually pretty anal about containing their garbage so as not to disrupt the environment. (That’s what you get when the major population in a place is scientists, I guess.) More than that, the different countries impose environmental conditions on each other. The competition is partly because of the overlapping claims, and partly because it feeds each countries sense of superiority. > [@Diceman](#): > > Aren’t sled dogs banned in Antarctica, for exactly this reason? (ie, penguins have no land preditors, and any feral dog population that appeared might wipe them out.) Dogs are banned by international agreement. Dogs had a long presence on Antartica, with a demonstrated lack of impact. It was a trade off: you want us to restrict this destructive building program, you’re going to have to give up something too. Trying to use a scientific explanation for banning them is like trying to find a scientific explanation for the details of a free-trade agreement. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/68 "2015-03-26T11:12:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Strangely, it was the opposite. The penguin was given it’s name as it looked like a Great Auk, which was the original “penguin”. So the southern flightless bird is the quasi-penguin! The etymology of the word penguin is still debated. > **[Penguin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin)** > > For prehistoric genera, see List of penguins#Fossil genera > Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae (/sfɪˈnɪsɪdiː, -daɪ/) of the order Sphenisciformes (/sfɪˈnɪsəfɔːrmiːz/). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapted for life in the ocean water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, ... (Etymology section) ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/69 "2015-03-26T11:33:37Z")
Unless the Polar Bears died it would most likely be the end of the Emperor Penguin which is already on the threaten list of endangered species. While the adults _may_ be able to form a powerful protective unit while huddled together (which would be a amazing adaptation) and prevent mass slaughter, the chicks must be left on their own on the ice pack and there would be no defense for their time alone and their trek to the sea and bears would certainly eat lots of them. The energy required to make a chick is enormous, which involved the parents trekking back and forth from sea to land and starving themselves for months during the land portion to regurgitate a bit of seafood for the chick to develop (along with a form of milk that IIRC both sexes can produce). There simply is not any ‘room’ I can see for them to create more chicks to offset predation, except if the journey was shorter, which perhaps due to climate change more nesting grounds closer to the sea will become available. Other penguins may have more of a chance. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/70 "2015-03-26T16:57:09Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > The etymology of the word penguin is still debated. > [Penguin - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin) > (Etymology section) Altho where the original word came from is somewhat of a mystery, there’s no doubt that:_The word penguin first appears in the 16th century as a synonym for great auk.[1]_ In other words, the Great Auk was the first “penguin” and “real” penguins were named after the now-extinct bird. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691/71 "2015-03-26T16:58:44Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Unless the Polar Bears died it would most likely be the end of the Emperor Penguin which is already on the threaten list of endangered species. Not quite.\* Near Threatened \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-shipped-polar-bears-to-antarctica/715691.md?page=3)